Friday, August 23, 2013

Like Schneiderman's, my poem is dedicated to Mark Bittman; but, my poem is also dedicated to Albert Chang.

there's every reason to be
but the reason is
gratitude for that fire you flipped in the pan
and the quick toss of burning oil onto
grandpa's shoes as your fire shine
gives new meaning to the wordsbootblack, whiskey, woman, and caramelize
but for all the cigar bar litigation
what did the doc say: too much garlic?
sunlight? white-collar crime? heartless judiciary?
turducken?
it is okay to loosen your bow tie
while cooking salmon with lentils
but do wear it tighter for stuffing
the scallops with basil
yes many wives agree
you are more handsome than
Chow Yun-Fat
so smoke that wok
and sue on!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

And if you are neither terrified of death nor
have you accepted it,
you may want to dance
with a child, or
read a poem
to your parents.
Your name in eternity may not
undo the oracles of flesh.
Your seed in the wind may not
fail at love in a field at night.
Your voice is now.
Your flesh is now.
Now is eternal.
Now love.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A great soul hides in the Games booths at a new theme park in
Southern California.

The theme park is called Financial Crisis Land, and Dan
Burite is one of its Full-Time-With-Benefits employees.

From looking at his outward appearance—sturdy build, 5’9”
165 pounds, dread locks dripping with Rasta beads—one would never guess that Dan B. is God.

Every day he performs miracles.

Today is no different.He stands at a game booth called
“Asset-liability Match.”The
challenge involves “withdrawing money” from a “Bank” before the bank can receive the
proceeds of its loans.The "money" is symbolized by a roll of toy paper currency that a player unrolls, similar to the way one would unroll toilet paper. "The Bank" is an image of a bag with
a $ symbol on it. The moneybag rises higher and higher on a golden pole.If the moneybag is too quick to rise up
to the red Liquidity button, an alarm sounds and the player gets All Wet when a bucket dumps water on the loser.But if the player removes all the money from the roll before the moneybag reaches Liquidity, a bell rings. And we have a Winner!

Dan Burite is the guy who collects
three bucks from theme park patrons who want to play this game; he presses the game’s
Start button, and says, “Go!”If
the player wins, he bestows a huge, plush Moneybag into the winner's open arms.If the player loses, Burite encourages the loser
to use the “withdrawn cash” to wipe water off his or her wet head.Outwardly, this seems all there is to
Dan Burite’s job.He performs
these simple tasks, with enthusiasm, day-in and day-out throughout the entire year, even on holidays.

But also every day.Before work.Dan wakes bright
and early to perform cleansing, breathing, and bodywork rituals and meditations
that strengthen his nervous system.For the past forty days, he has been chanting this mantra:

Repeating this mantra as many times as he has has given Dan Burite the ability to Recognize Any Other Person He Encounters Is Himself.

What does this mean?

For Dan Burite, this means that every time he looks into the face of a theme park patron, he merges with the divine essence inside that other person.

What influence does this have on his interaction with total strangers from every walk of life?

When Dan Burite and a game player exchange cash, when he hands over the toy "money roll."When Dan distributes a prize to a
winner, Dan makes sure that his fingers brush ever-so-gently against the other's fingers.In this moment,
Dan Burite charges the other person’s biomagnetic field with the pure vibration
of divine intellect and higher consciousness.

Any theme park patron who plays the “Asset-Liability Match" game is certain to leave Financial Crisis Land at the end of the day with a
sense of heightened well-being (which of course they inevitably attribute to the
experience of visiting a theme park in Southern California as they almost totally forget their interaction with Dan).But now, dear reader, you know the
truth.

Dan Burite knows he is god.He recognizes every person he encounters, and he encounters over 1.4 million people per year, as himself, as God. He treats others accordingly.

Dan Burite was a regular guy when he moved to Southern California
from New York City five years ago. But after practicing this particular, 40-day meditation, Dan Burite can proclaim, with confidence, he is a Wise Guy. He's gained wisdom. As far as Dan can describe it, this First Sutra for the Aquarian Age Meditation is a learning tool for the Ascension Process.

What does this mean?

Sure, the old adage of treating others as you would like
to be treated holds true; likewise, love your neighbor as you love yourself is still useful wisdom. Hell, we've mastered all that. Time to Amp It Up. How about for the Aquarian Age, and for humanity's continuing
evolution, human beings push themselves a bit further?Treat one another as you
would treat your god.

And if you do not believe in God, or a god, or Creation; and perhaps you hold the view that Religions are at the root of all the world’s problems; in any case, treat other humans with the same kind of reverence and awe you have for your car or your
cock, your smart phone or your donkey. Oh, Dear Ones, whatever it is
you hold dear, whatever is you--You be you begin be me become because believe beget be good bebop bepop bepop by golly be God…!

And if you hold
nothing dear, but feel you are a dizzy, unworthy, hag with a heavy drinking
problem, then you deserve a vacation.Play a game at Dan Burite’s booth.Ride the thrilling Housing Bubble Bust. Visit the Fun House for Economic Reform. And enjoy the rest of your day here at
Financial Crisis Land, California!

There’s no doubt that the mark she
sees on the exposed brick wall is a cockroach.She thinks about it for a while.She’s never really despised cockroaches as much as she has
always pretended to.She doesn’t
mind them crawling on her while she nurses The Master’s child.She doesn’t even mind when the
infestation grows so out of hand that the government declares a state of
emergency.She remains calm.She nurses the child.The infant continues to suckle with quiet
passion.Her eyes open and
close.Her tiny, pink hand rests
on the woman’s flesh.The woman
uses her long hands to brush the creeping vermin off the child’s head.She chants the thousand names of the
divine mother over and over.After
forty cycles of chanting, the roaches enter into fits.She watches their brown bodies shake as
if charged with electricity.She
chants the names of the divine mother over again in rapt quietude.The room fills with light—the nation
fills with light—and the insects burst like soap bubbles; bugs burst up and
down every coast.A remarkable
sight!And the sound is like a
billion Zen E bells ringing out over the purple mountains majesty and above the
fruited plains.The government
lifts all warnings, all sanctions, all curfews.Though the woman becomes a national hero, she doesn’t move
from the rocking chair.She
continues to nurse until the child decides she’s had her fill.

Listen to Les chant about Chance’s choice.North.South.East.West.Send.Press send end call press pressure gong sound send sand
through throat.Her Ex- exposed
her extra explosive excitement.Now she’s here, shoving me into this desert, which is really nothing
more than an Ex-plain.Why does
she shove?She used to press, but
now she wants to hush love.Shhhh.Love.Shlove.She tries to ex-press love.Shove and shout to get the shhhh out.She’s as impulsive as she is pulsive, as impossible as she
is possible, as irritable as she is ritable.She’s excessive and cessive, exciting and citing,
excruciating and cruciating.

Egoista
Whip Cream tells me her ego is made
from milk.Contrary to popular
suspicion, Ego does not affiliate with Igor.In fact, polls support Ego’s lead in Ohio.While U.N. speeches lack ego of years
back, Greeks protest ego measures.Ego hits Syrian military headquarters.Wall Street turns egomaniacal.Ego deaths rise in New York City.Investors high-speed trade their egos for data-enhanced
servers.Egos dissolve off the
shoulders of drug-enhanced egomedia moguls.On Friday, we met to ego all night long at the
egothèque.After the morning yoga
class, we tossed our egos into the Chalice Pond.When they broke through the water’s surface, they made
ripples that sounded like this:long,
long ego an echo of ache glow inflated and let go. California allows ego-less drivers.Radio waves send these words: Have you seen the new spy
thriller Egoland?Download a new ap for your ego.Enter the freeway and drive West at
light speed.When the sun strokes
your ego, ah!Be burning delight! Be naked wonder!